


[ON HOLD!!] 413 Questions

by birdiepfft



Category: Collegestuck - Fandom, Homestuck, Humanstuck? - Fandom
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2018-08-08 22:53:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7776823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdiepfft/pseuds/birdiepfft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[[ON A PAUSE!! RLLY OLD FANFIC AHEAD]]<br/>—<br/>[[Here is a Homestuck Fanfiction told in the Collegestuck AU, however, non-fans can read this, too. Since I would be introducing characters from square one.]]<br/>John Egbert, the brother of Jade Harely, has several questions. Why does his sister and him have different surnames, and yet they are in the same family? Why do 36 people at his school are zodiac crazes, and their birthdate is the start of their favourite zodiac? Why does he see the numbers "413" practically everywhere? Why does he see spirographs of a long forgotten game everywhere he turns? Why does he have an uncontrollable urge to embrace the strong wind on stormy days? Why does he play unknown songs he has never heard before on his piano? </p><p>John may consider himself crazy, but as a new teacher comes to this school and he has started this new experience as a college student along with his close friends, John begins to realise that everything is much more complicated than it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ok

this fan fiction is hella old and i dont rlly like it so ksjdhss its not a very good demonstration of my skills so be warned-


	2. Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the Collegestuck AU Fanfiction, 413 Questions!

All I'm gonna say is, I am an aspiring author, and hopefully this story can entertain you as much as me.

This book is going to reach out to the audience, so by that, I'm going to say this;

You may request ships in this story.

I'm going to completely abolish the canon ships between the teens in this AU, so I'm going to make a poll soon [ www.quotev.com/quiz/8321370/A-Thing-About-The-Collegestuck-Fanfiction-No-One-Prolly-Reads-ok ] (Can guests take this? I'm not sure.) Every time I make a new chapter, I'll go to this poll and check. The most popular shipping requests [no matter canon or not] will be put into this story. 

Please don't bash onto this fan fiction because of the ships. I still try to make it as entertaining as possible. Feel free to give me ideas on future chapters, though! These help a lot.

I have a few conditions on the requested ships -  
\- I will refuse to put in any incest ships  
\- I will refuse to put in any underage drinking or sexual activity [Roxy is an exception but I rarely put her into drinking mode anyway]  
\- Suggestive events are allowed, but it goes no further unless the people are grown ups.  
\- In order for the book to make sense, the grown up ships are going by the canon arrangement. Only the teens' ships can be requested.

Having said that, Happy Reading~!

\- DawnSky


	3. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Even though this is a Collegestuck AU, the Alpha Kids and Beta Kids are under 18. Therefore there shouldn't be any smutty chapters for these guys, sorry. :(**
> 
> **Btw, the roommates don't affect the shipping requests. It's just something I deciphered from the canon comics and decided would be most compatible for the trolls and humans. However if I pair some Alpha Trolls together wrong, my bad. [IskippedOpenboundunintentionallywhilereadingHomestuck-] I did research on the relationships tho so I'm trying to keep this as canon as possible bear with me sobs**
> 
> **I don't know how college works. Much less American high school. I'm just rolling with it and making it like middle school.**
> 
> **Characters with same surnames aren't in the same family unless I state otherwise.**

The sun rose above the clouds gradually, waking the city up from their sleep, signifying a brand new day across the country. A teenage boy snuggled in bed, just like any other kid would do on a Monday morning, reluctant to be interrupted from their sweet cotton candy dreams.   
Soon, the annoying buzz of an alarm woke the kid up. He slapped his hand on the switch that turned the alarm off, signaling that he heard the stimulation. The boy groaned and tossed around his bed, not wanting to get out of the warm blankets.  
"John, wake up already." A black-haired girl tapped his shoulder as the boy, named John, still shifted in his bed.   
"Just let me sleep a little bit more, Jade. . ." He mumbled, while Jade rolled her eyes and walked out.   
"Fine. I'll come up again once breakfast is ready. You better be good to go by then."   
As soon as the girl walked out and slammed the door shut, John slowly got out of bed.   
"Godamnit. . . Jade usually doesn't act like this. Probably because today is the first day of school. . ." The boy mumbled, and slid on his glasses. The whole entire world just turned into 1080P just by this single movement. His room is as messy as ever. John walked over to his closet and changed his clothes from his bright blue pajamas into his shirt and pants. John is at an average height, though he is the second tallest out of his group of friends. Once finished, John went downstairs, tying his tie messily on the way down. "Is breakfast ready?"  
"Yes." A man said, setting down two plates of cookies and two glasses of milk.  
"Father! Cookies again?!" John groaned through his buck teeth, rolling his electric blue eyes.  
"Just eat, John. We don't have all day." Jade said, starting to eat her plate of cookies.  
John reluctantly lifted up one of the cookies and bit into it slowly, chewing. At the same time, he grabbed the hair gel on the table and sleeked his hair forward and into shape. Jade, on the other hand, finished her plate of food and went to brush her teeth.   
Once it was time to leave, Jade picked up her bag while John put on his blazer, saying good-bye to his father and started to walk to school.  
Ping.   
Jade brushed her waist-length hair aside and turned her startling-green eyes to John's pocket that was buzzing. She fixed her round glasses slightly before speaking, "Hey John, someone's messaging you."  
John ran his hand through his ebony hair questionably and checked his phone.   
_'Dave; yo dude. i'm at school already. so are the other people, what the fuck is taking you two so long.'_  
John sighed, as he responded,  
_'You; we'll be there in five, dave.'_  
It's true. Jade and John live really close to the school, causing them to be a tad late than everyone else in their class.  
_'Dave; you guys still live in that shitty suburb of yours?'  
'You; aw, cmon. its not shitty. at least we dont have to wake up when the sun isnt even up and spend one hour and a half on the car.'  
'Dave; ahaha, you got me there.'_  
John smiled at his phone as his footsteps became significantly slower. Jade groaned and pulled John by the wrist.   
"You're talking to Dave again, aren't ya."  
"N-No!" John stuttered, shocked.  
"Whatev. We need to get to class now or else we'll really be late, okay??"  
John sighed and walked on.

Once John and Jade arrived school, they walked into class and stared at everyone. Their classmates have been the same compared to the times before the long holiday. No newbies.  
A white-haired kid waved at John, standing beside a dark-haired boy that has a rather dark complexion. John walked over and fist-bumped with this dude with hella-rad shades (Although this guy's a tad taller than him).   
"Yo Dave."  
"'Sup John."  
The albino boy peered at John and gave a smirk - an ironic one.  
"Aw c'mon. Stop it with one of those smirks of yours." John rolled his eyes playfully.  
"Hey! I have to stay ironic, okay." Dave grumbled.  
"I was just messin' with ya, buddy." John laughed, "I'll never ask you to take a break from your rad habits."  
Dave nodded.  
"Hello." A dark-haired boy said, his voice rather loud.  
"This is my new friend, Karkat. Karkat, meet John."  
"Hi." John gave a toothy grin through his abnormally large front teeth.  
"I wonder if I can hate on you. We'll just have to see."  
John raised a brow at Karkat's words, staring at the boy's chocolate brown eyes. Everyone is wearing contact lenses into their favourite colours. They don't know why. They just feel the need to do so - as if it's meant to be. John is the same. He wears those bright blue contact lenses while Jade does bright green.   
Soon, the class got silenced by the words of their teacher, Mr. Typheus.  
"Hello, dear fellow students.  
I hope you have enough of those prudent   
During a long break that the school has issued upon us."  
The teacher spoke in a sing-song voice, in which the class groaned.   
"Okay, I can see all of you hate this so I'm getting to the point." Mr. Typheus spoke normally this time.  
"Hope you had a great time during the holidays. However, this doesn't mean that you should act like what you did while taking that break."  
The class groaned some more from the news.   
"Before we begin, may I ask everyone to go to their seats?"   
The class shuffled and students pushed around each other before sitting down in their respective spots.   
"Now, probably the worst part for you people, the rooms." The class groaned some more. However, this teacher stayed silent.   
"I think you all know what this is. You will be assigned to another person as a pair and we will give you the room number as well as the key. You will be sleeping on a bunk bed. These won't change until you get into your next year group or grade."  
Once the class has settled down, Mr. Typheus, the calm, pale-skinned man in green clothing projected the chart for this years' students on the whiteboard.  
The class seemed to bustle in excitement as Mr. Typheus handed out the keys to the students' respective rooms. The class, probably, for once, has gotten a satisfying pair. The chart was shown as follows;

**Room 413 - John Egbert + Dave Strider  
Room 414 - Jade Harely + Rose Lalonde  
Room 415 - Dirk Strider + Jake English  
Room 416 - Jane Crocker + Roxy Lalonde  
Room 417 - Aradia Megido + Sollux Captor  
Room 418 - Terezi Pyrope + Vriska Serket  
Room 419 - Nepeta Legion + Equius Zahhak  
Room 420 - Karkat Vantas + Gamzee Makara  
Room 421 - Feferi Peixes + Eridan Ampora   
Room 422 - Tavros Nitram + Kanaya Maryam   
Room 423 - Kankri Vantas + Cronus Ampora  
Room 424 - Kurloz Makara + Mituna Captor  
Room 425 - Meenah Peixes + Aranea Serket  
Room 426 - Porrim Maryam + Latula Pyrope  
Room 427 - Meulin Legion + Horuss Zahhak  
Room 428 - Rufioh Nitram + Damara Megido  
Room 429 - Caliborn English + Calliope English  
Room 430 - *Wayward Vagabond + *Serenity  
Room 431 - *Peregrine Mendicant + *Aimless Renegade  
Room 432 - *Jaspers Lalonde + *Maplehoof Lalonde**

***New students that have joined us. Please meet the principal for more info.**

Seems like there are newbies, but not in this class.  
John glanced across the room towards Dave, smiling as wide as a child on Christmas Day. 

 

"We got the same room!" John squealed in excitement as he walked to class with Dave. Although this nerdy boy's 16 already, but he still acts like a 13-year old.  
"Yep. I can read, okay?" Dave bonked the excited boy on the head, an unreadable expression plastered across his face as always.  
"Ow!" John protested, rubbing his hair messily.   
Dave raised a brow and shrugged. "Don't know how nerds survive these days."  
Soon, they split up and the long day started.

Once school finished, John raced across the hall towards his dorm room, passing by all of the different dorm rooms starting from 432. Wait. John slowed down, staring at the small imprint on each door.  
A Spirograph.   
It seemed familiar to John, however it seems to be stored at the back of his head, unable to be recalled.  
John walked forward.   
"Room 420"  
The Spirograph seemed to change a little compared to room 419 though not too much.  
John frowned and backed to room 432, and restarted his run, fixing his eyes on the Spirograph this time.  
It seems to. . . Animate.  
John sighed and stared up at his dorm.   
"Room 413"  
413\. . . These numbers seem to be everywhere, as well. What's with these strange numbers and patterns? John looked at room 414. He tapped at the sign and saw the faint marker tracing of the number '3' over '4'  
"The fuck. . ." John frowned, tracing over the number.   
"Hey Egbert!" John heard a holler and stared down the shiny, white and flawless hallway that's staining into hues of red under sunset. Dave.  
"Hey." John replied half-heartedly.  
Dave walked over. "What's wrong, bro."  
John sighed, as his friend opened the door. "We'll speak once we get inside."


	4. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I suck at speaking Jake. No exceptions. Bear with me pls.**
> 
>  
> 
> **Btw the main work is on another website called Quotev. I'll try and make the number of chapters the same and catch up with each other. Once that's done, updates would be much slower, but I will try and consist of each update at 2000 words instead of previous or current ones like 1000**

A set of footsteps echoed across the hall once the room 413 door closed shut.  
A jingle of keys were heard. The footsteps stopped at the doorstop of room 415.  
Click.  
The key was inserted.  
Another click.  
The key was turned.  
A final click.  
The key was pulled out.  
Creak.  
The door was opened.  
The footsteps continued.  
The door was closed.  
The lock clicked shut.  
Silence.  
The figure ruffled his hair to make it rather messy and sighed, opening his closet as he loaded his set of clothes to his side of the storage space.  
"Hey English. See you have returned from class later than usual." The teenage boy seated on the swivel chair near the desk spun over to face his roommate.  
The boy near the closet raised a brow.  
"At least I don't speak in that stupid British vocabulary as much as before."  
"True, true."  
The boy near the closet pulled off his tie and tugged his shirt collar loose, before going to the bathroom to clean his green glasses.  
"What's with you calling me by the name English? I have a name. And it's Jake, okay?"  
The boy on the swivel chair chuckled. "I like your name as English, besides, so what? You just sound . . ." the blonde boy tried to imitate the best British accent he can, "English. That's all."  
Jake grumbled. "Jake English can be my full name. Teachers can call me by the name 'English', or 'Mr. English', but I implore you to call me Jake instead. Deal?"  
"No."  
"Blistering Barnacles."  
"You're starting to talk sailor with me, English. Aye aye, cap'n." the boy tilted his orange cap on his head and chuckled some more.  
"I hate you, Dirk."  
"Love you too."  
Jake just rolled his forest green eyes and walked over to the bed.  
"Who's getting the top?"  
"What?" Dirk seemed a little shocked as he flushed red.  
"Don't think dirty with me, Strider. Talkin' 'bout the top bunk here." Jake raised a brow once again.  
Dirk laughed it off nervously, fixing his angled so-called 'anime' shades. "You're referring to me by the surname, too. English."  
"That's because you call me 'English'." Jake retorted, "Plus, you're trying to change the subject. If you don't say, I'm gettin' the top." He started to climb up the ladder.  
"Wait." Dirk walked over and ran a hand through his gelled back hair, anime style. Jake stopped for a moment to look down at the rad kid. "I'm getting the top bunk."  
Jake smirked. "You know what, you look a hell like the 16-year old dude Dave."  
"You're now the one that's trying to change the subject." Dirk crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently. "I'm getting the top bunk." He continued.  
"Nah. I'm not going to lose to your dogblasted attitude. Come and get it if you can."  
Dirk's face slowly formed into a mischievous smile. "You asked for it."  
He began to climb up the ladder much quicker than Jake, jumped on top of the poor boy and leapt onto the bedsheets. He sat on the top bunk and looked down at Jake who has his mouth open wide before closing it, getting off the ladder, his mood as grumpy as ever. Dirk shrugged and lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.  
"You're a friggin asshole, Strider."  
"I know."  
"And a douchebag."  
"I also know about that."  
Jake exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself down. "Whatever."  
"Okay."  
Jake lay down on his bed for a while, before getting up and to start his homework.  
"So . . . How was your day?" Dirk asked, staring up at the ceiling, obviously relaxing.  
"Biology with Mr. Vantas, Quadrants with Ms. Maryam, Combat with Ms. Legion, The Law and Politics with Ms. Pyrope, unicorns . . . You know, the usual."  
"Okay." Dirk replied once again, before tensing up when he rethought the sentence. "Wait, unicorns?!"  
Jake stifled a laugh. He had buck teeth, too; like John. "Just messin' with ya, bud. Took you longer than usual to realise that."  
Now it's Dirk's turn to grumble, however, he did not show his look of annoyance while Jake just carried on with his homework, the atmosphere fairly peaceful.

In room 414, the girls did not take notice of the marker tracing that John had spotted, but was busy catching on with each other. Now, we know this character named Jade Harley. How about this other girl? She's called Rose Lalonde. Though Jade Harley and Rose Lalonde are polar opposites - both in appearance and personality - they got along just fine.  
Jade had waist-length ebony hair while Rose had shoulder-length blond hair.  
Jade had startling green eyes while Rose had irises that are a soothing and light shade of violet.  
Jade had a bubbly, optimistic personality while Rose remained calm and emotionless at all situations.  
Jade liked the sun while Rose enjoyed studying about dark powers and magic (Or is it magyyk?).  
Anyways, you get the point. They're opposites - but they get along just like any BFF pair. They did things together, did homework together, heck, they even sorted who's sleeping the top bunk with no problem.  
"Hey." Jade whispered to Rose once it was getting a little late after their dinner.  
"What."  
"Do you think there's something between John and Dave?"  
"Are you talking about a relationship they're having are more than just platonic."  
"Um. . . Yes."  
"I see."  
". . ."  
Okay. Maybe they can have a few awkward moments.  
"You don't have any opinion of this?"  
"No. I feel neutral about this statement."  
"Oh okay."  
More silence.  
"Anyway. What's your schedule for tomorrow?"  
"I have Biology with Mr. Vantas, Quadrants with Ms. Maryam, Animal Anatomy with Mr. Nitram and Politics with Ms. Pyrope."  
"Oh . . . Uh . . . That sounds . . . Interesting . . ."  
"I can see your bore and distaste over these subjects."  
"It's just that it's so boring!" Jade exclaimed, sighing.  
"What subject. Biology, Quadrants, Politics, or--"  
"Actually, can we just say that all subjects relating to science is boredom to me?"  
"Fine."  
". . . Wanna hear what I have tomorrow?"  
"Sure."  
"I have Acrobatics with Mr. Makara, Swimming with Mr. Ampora and Ms. Peixes, Combat with Ms. Legion, and Psychology with Ms. Serket!"  
"That's nice. I do see I have interest in some of the subjects listed. However, I will choose not to specify these topics because if might bore you. If this okay."  
"Yes." Jade breathed a sigh of relief.  
Rose checked the time. "It's late."  
"Yep." Jade smiled, tired from the chatter as she climbed into the bottom bunk of the bed. She had her pajamas on already and has already cleaned up. "Good night, Rose."  
"Sweet dreams, my friend."

[A few hours ago when John and Dave first entered the room]  
"So, what's up with you. You seem a little tired and worried."  
"This sounds crazy, this sounds crazy . . ." John muttered quietly to himself, until Dave bonked him on the head the second time during the day. "Ow! That really fucking hurts, okay??"  
Dave raised a brow peered at John from his shades.  
"Just tell me why the fuck were you standing outside Rose and Jade's dorm, tracing their room number sign like you're possessed from a horror fucking movie."  
John pondered his options. He could just tell Dave right away, or he can lie. Lying seems like a tempting option but that doesn't work for Striders. Striders are always calculating. Even though the Strider that's 17 (Dirk) isn't in the same family as the Strider that's 16 (Dave), they seem to have matching personalities - their ironic habits, their cool personality, and the fact that all girls swoon over them . . . It just doesn't seem right. That can be added to one of John's suspects about this whole entire school.  
"Hello?" Dave asked once again, impatient. This jolted John from his deep thoughts.  
"Oh, um . . ." John took in a deep breath. Dave waited. "Our room number is scrawled faintly with a marker-ish pen on the sign 'Room 414'"  
Dave nodded. "Knew that something's wrong with this place."  
"You've noticed, too?"  
"Hell fucking yes. You think I'm blind?"  
"Um . . ."  
"What's with these pictures on these fucking doors? What's with people with same surnames but different families? What's with people writing in all sorts of pen colours and quirks? You think you're the only one that suspects all these small details? You're wrong."  
"I . . . Um . . . Wow."  
"You know what? I even reported this to the principal. And guess what? He turned me the fuck down, and told me 'GIVE ME 413 QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS ABOUT THIS PLACE, AND I'LL THINK ABOUT IT'" He made this ugly accent to imitate the principal, surprisingly, he did it well and soon John's surprised expression turned from that to amusement.  
"413, 413, 413 . . . These numbers are everywhere, what the fuck." John chuckled.  
"Guess what? I'm really stacking up these questions. Now that I have you, we can add a shit ton more. Who knows, maybe we can reach the goal someday and find out the cold bloody truth." Dave smiled in triumph.  
John nodded. "Agreed."  
"It's 6 already and I'm hungry as hell. Let's go and eat. Once we're done we can come back and try writing some more questions and ask it the hell out of the principal."  
"Yes!" John yelled excitement.


	5. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **As far as I have considered, I won't be adding a lot of characters in just yet, because new readers can get confused about the names. What I am going to do is I'm going to introduce these new students and etc. - but I won't be talking a lot about them. This story is mainly going to be focusing on the Alpha and the Beta kids. Which are 8 people in total. So this should be better than needing to memorise about 50 characters.**
> 
> **In case you were wondering, these are the names.**
> 
> **Alpha Kids -**
> 
> **Jane Crocker  
>  Roxy Lalonde  
> Dirk Strider  
> Jake English**
> 
> **Beta Kids -**
> 
> **John Egbert  
>  Rose Lalonde  
> Dave Strider  
> Jade Harley**
> 
> **I repeat: Although characters can have same or similar surnames, they are not in the same family unless stated otherwise.**

"Another dollar, another day." A voice mumbled out loud.  
The figure sighed. He doesn't remember when he had got this quote from. However, one thing is certain - he has to introduce another bunch of newbies around.  
A knock was heard on the door.  
"Principal English?"  
Mr. English breathed a sigh.   
"Come on in."  
There, in front of the door, stood six people in sight. He knew that they were the new students. The principal looked up at them.  
"Full name? State siblings if you do have any."  
A girl with quite heavy eyeliner on, simple shirt and dress, and a ebony fringe along with waist-length hair. She blinked, showing her silver-like, glowing eyes. "Serenity. I do not have a surname."  
The next person is a shy guy with a seemingly bandaged body. He wore a cream-based fashion style along with a white blazer to top it off, his complexion quite dark. He possessed clean, styled hair along with near white eyes, too. "Wayward Vagabond. Call me Way if you'd like."  
The third person is a girl, who is the polar opposite of Wayward Vagabond appearance-wise. She had platinum, silky hair that was fairly long and had dark, stormy grey eyes that were just as calculating as she appears to be - narrowed eyes, pursed lips. . . All looking like a detective. However, most of her body is bandaged like Way, and her fashion is white-themed. She has a fair and near pale complexion. "Peregrine Mendicant."  
A boy, dressed yellow themed, and with choppy hair announced, "Aimless Renegade." He is pretty short and buff. He had a bandaged body, too, and owned snow coloured irises. His complexion is as dark as Way's.   
Finally, there stood a boy and a girl, seemingly twins.   
The boy, with amber eyes and black themed fashion style, spoke confidently. "Jaspers Lalonde." He had neat, oily black hair slicked back into place, while the girl, with a white and pink themed fashion, said, "Maplehoof Lalonde, sister of Jaspers and Rose Lalonde, as well as Dave Strider. You may refer to me as Maple." She had pastel-coloured eyes and cotton coloured hair with a bright pink bow tie.  
"Alright then. Go back to your classes and I shall assign a person from one of your subjects to introduce you to this new school you're going to stay for the rest of the term-"  
"Um. . . Excuse me, sir, but you have skipped me?"  
The principal looked around. "I only see five people!"  
The little man sighed and raised up his hand. "I'm. . . Here?"  
"Ah. There you are. Who are you?"  
The boy is about 1.45 meters in height, 4'9", in other words. He had a heavy Scottish accent and had a rather curly red hair, along with freckles and pale purple eyes compared to his royal purple themed outfit. He had oversized glasses that were round and had a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck. His hair was slicked back except for this small portion he left dangling in front of his face that is dyed purple.  
". . . Eridan Ampora. . ." He whispered.  
"Sorry?"  
"Eridan. . . Am. . . Ampora." The boy said, mustering his courage. "Son of Dualscar Ampora, brother of Cronus Ampora."  
"Ah. I see. Same goes for you, then. Now, all of you may leave."

John tumbled and turned in his bed, before groggily getting up, brushing his teeth, and went to class without breakfast at the canteen. He was way to tired from last night since he was thinking about the 413 questions he was supposed to ask. It was almost impossible to achieve that goal. But maybe they all will see.   
He checked his timetable. He's having acrobatics with Mr. Makara. He has a bad feeling about this, since . . . That teacher has a bad aura wherever he goes . . . Ah well . . . Everything should be fine, soon . . .

A boy dressed in a red flannel walked towards Eridan Ampora, towering over the small teen with his 1.68 m (5'6") body. His deep eyeliner and eyeshadow boring into the shorter boy. "Are you Eridan Ampora, the new guy I'm supposed to show around?"  
"U . . . uh . . . Yes . . ." Eridan doesn't know how to react. This person's so tall. . . He doesn't know whether he can actually get along-  
"Follow me." The boy said cheerily, his smile reflecting his tan and chocolate brown eyes in contrast. He seems to be the only one who isn't wearing contact lenses here - even Eridan himself has worn a pair.  
"What's your name?" Eridan asked, tentatively.  
"Karkat Vantas." Eridan had only just realised this taller boy has a Mexican accent. It's very faint but it can be told.  
"So, um . . . What do we have?"  
"I think it's all on your timetable. I think what is more important is your appearance and how you're going to fit in this school. Not academically, but I think socially is more important."  
Eridan nodded.  
Karkat looked down at the smaller teen. "So . . . I see you have figured out a pair of contact lenses to wear and the clothes you felt the need to wear, huh?"  
Eridan gave another small, curt nod.  
"You look kinda cute that way. Almost like Harry Potter." Karkat laughed heartily, brushing up Eridan by the nose.  
Eridan blushed lightly under his scarf. He had heard rumours about an emo troll that he is really blunt and mean that hates on everyone. Karkat seems like this person, however he's being a lot nicer than how the people in his neighbourhood described. . .  
"Anyway, have you figured out your quirk and pen colour yet?"  
"Huh?" Eridan seemed surprised. "What pen and quirk?"  
"Like. . . Your way of writing?? I find myself willing to write in caps in this shade of grey pen." Karkat held up his writing pen.  
"O . . . Oh . . . I haven't tried yet."  
Karkat pulled out a set of multi-coloured pens and a piece of paper, giving it to Eridan. "Pick one and write normally, as in, the way that appeals to your mind the most. Same goes for your pen colour choice."  
Eridan shuffled through the pen choices gingerly, before picking out a pure shade of purple, and starting writing sentences that popped straight out of his head.  
"Hm . . . You don't seem to capitalise or add any punctuation, write in double 'v's and double 'w's, as well as not use the 'g' in '-ing' ending words."  
"Mm . . . Yeah . . ." Eridan replied. "Why is it like this, though? It seems like I also am obsessed with the zodiac Aquarius, only to find out I'm born on the starting date of it?"  
"I dunno, man. For me it's the same. But only Cancer." Karkat scratched his head. "But I guess that's a question to be answered for later . . ."


	6. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Dear new readers;  
>  You will have the honour of memorising around 50 characters with different names and a personality of their own! Good luck!**

  "I don't see he's a new student . . . Is it because of technical problems?" The principal mumbled to himself, before checking his mail from the Amporas. He scrolled through a pile of them before stopping on one that labeled " **Unread** ". He frowned and opened the mail.  
  "Greetings, Mr. English. I am sorry I have forgotten to tell you, Eridan Ampora cannot attend to this school until another few years. We have realised our child, is only 14 years of age.  
  Sincerely,  
  Dualscar Ampora"  
A simple message, not very long, and yet he hadn't have the time to read e-mails sent from his own staff? Mr. English sighed. He had set this school up for children that have to be at least 16, it was purely by instinct and he didn't know why. He also realised that he had done many things without hesitation, but looked like a foolish act or something peculiar in the end. For example, the children were specially elected and selected before filed through a series of strange tests. Now that this batch of kids came along, he feels like he shouldn't be taking in any more students; which is another weird thing.   
Now, that a new student, named Eridan Ampora, supposedly 16 when he took the entry test, but is actually 13.   
"This is so much more complicated than it looks like. . ." Mr. English groaned.

"And. . . Here is where we learn literature and combat!" Karkat smiled, gesturing towards a dull lime themed classroom. Eridan gave an automatic nod, although he feels like he can get lost in this school already.  
"Want me to show you your classmates?"   
Eridan grimaced a little. "I think this is enough for now. . . If I have any questions, I'll. . . Ask."  
Karkat seemed a little concerned, but nodded. "Okay. We're gonna have quadrants with Ms. Maryam later, since we skipped our first lesson, so. . . Let's get to that class."

John tried to concentrate while Mr. Makara bored the class with different techniques. He found this subject boring, however, his father had insisted on taking it, so he had to attend. Jade and another two boys seemed to enjoy it a lot.   
The elder boy had messy, yet curly hair that seemed to be gelled. The hair spiked all over the place while his facial complexion seemed pale with dark rings around his eyes and mouth. He spoke with a raspy, tired voice. His name is Kurloz Makara.  
The younger boy is a practical clone of Kurloz, only with shorter hair. He had polka-dot pants with a matching blazer that had fur to top it off, making him look rather Russian, while Kurloz had a similar attire. This young man is named Gamzee Makara.  
Both boys are the children of Mr. Makara, and, in their family blood, there flows a genetical multiple personality disorder symptom that has been passed down several generations. In which, for an unknown period of time and an unknown amount of breaks, their royal purple-blue eyes would turn into a fiery red colour. They would have the uncontrollable urge to use violence on other people or to destroy things, and so that's why the Makara family is absent a lot.  
The rest of the class seemed bored, too. They are much less fortunate compared to John, Jade, Rose, Dave, Dirk, Jake, and their two other friends - they have to take every single class that is available at this school. Causing them to have to wake up 2 hours earlier than John and his friends, and to spend one hour on each subject compared to the others who spend two. These people, spend 12 hours a day on learning, and manage to finish all the homework that is assigned to them. If you ask John, he personally think that these 24 people are like gods. However, two seats were empty today. John frowned in confusion. One of these two people usually is here everyday. . .  
Once the class was over, John rushed out of class, relieved that this subject was over.

As Eridan walked around the hallways, far behind Karkat, his eyes darting around cautiously. Suddenly, he got pushed aside by a strong hand, his back hit the wall as he winced uncontrollably. Eridan looked up tentatively, only to be met with a pair of strikingly red eyes. Eridan gulped and tried to call out for Karkat, but he was much too scared to even utter a whisper.  
The huge figure above him had messy and slicked up black hair. According to this person's build, he should be a muscular male. His face is covered by a large, green Kraken mask with red spirals on the either side of the cheeks. Only from his bottom lip downwards is visible. The boy's lips curled into an obvious smirk as he kept Eridan pinned to the wall.   
"Who do we have here? A newbie?" The boy's voice showed a mocking tone. His gaze trailed down to Eridan's sewn pocket on his blazer. "Hm. . . An Aquarius? Interesting. I've heard there was only you left." Eridan had a bad feeling about this. He closed his eyes tightly, then. . .  
The weight on his body subsided, followed by another icy cold voice. "Enough, Caliborn. We still have a class to attend to." Eridan opened his eyes and saw the boy named Caliborn grumble before walking away, revealing another figure behind him.  
"Th. . . Thank-"  
"Don't thank me. It's what I'm supposed to do." The girl replied. She, too, had a Kraken mask on. However, the cheeks had pure lime-green spirals. She looked at Eridan with her bright green eyes. These two children seem to be twins. "It's best if you avoid my brother at all costs. You wouldn't want to face consequences." The girl had a hint of warmth or kindness in her words, however, they still sounded emotionless overall. She turned to walk away.  
"W. . . Wait! What's your name?"  
The white haired girl with streaks of green in her hair replied, not turning back, "Calliope."

"Hey, Eridan! Where have you been?" Karkat asked, concerned when Eridan caught up with the taller boy.   
"I. . . Got. . . Uh. . . Caught in some. . . Trouble." The small Scottish boy panted, breathless.  
"What trouble? I need to know." Karkat began to act serious.  
Eridan gulped, and recounted what had happened to him in the fastest way possible. Karkat's face turned grim as he nodded, dragging Eridan by the scarf to a dark corner. He looked around before whispering quietly,  
"Don't mess with the English twins."  
"Huh. . .? Wha. . .? Who are the English-"  
Karkat put his index finger on his lips to silence Eridan.  
"The English twins are the boy and girl you just met. Don't mess with them. They've got screws missin'."   
Eridan nodded and gulped like the one millionth time today. "The girl seems nice. . ."  
Karkat shook his head, "She can be really cruel if she wants to. You have no idea-"  
"Oi, you two. Stop making out and get to your next class. You'll be late." The boy named Gamzee Makara dragged Karkat out of the dark corner while the Mexican was speaking mid-sentence, while 21 people around Gamzee snickered and gossiped under their breath. Eridan flushed and stood up, walking out of the dark corner as the crowd did catcalls and whistles loudly.  
"MR. SHOUTYPANTS HAS GOT A BOYFRIEND!" They all yelled, Karkat growled under his breath, before running to Ms. Maryam's classroom, leaving Eridan in a flushing mess in the middle of the crowd.

After their tiring four hours of learning, Dirk and Jake walked out of their classroom along with their two other friends, heading for lunch. Both of them are girls, and described as "BFFsies 4Evers".  
One had a pale complexion, and commonly described as the school's "pink-eyed blonde". She had lipstick on, just like Rose. Ms. Peixes (the swimming teacher) is terrified of her for some reason. This girl had choppy locks that reached the start of her neck and were curled up on the end. She had a slight French accent along with a pink-themed attire. This girl used to drink alcohol, but she has quitted ever since she has joined this school. Her name is Roxy Lalonde.  
The other had buck teeth and black hair. Her hair length was about the same as Roxy, only it doesn't curl. She has got a pair of strikingly blue eyes and her fashion is baby blue-themed. She wears a pair of oval-shaped glasses and loves to bake. She also loves the products of the brand Betty Crocker. This girl is, coincidentally, named Jane Crocker. Jane is adored by Ms. Peixes, and is manipulated several times by the female teacher to be more distant from her friends, however, Ms. Peixes' attempts always end up in a fail.  
Now it's lunch time, and it's a huge break for all students, however, the "English twins" were nowhere to be found - they seem to be isolated from everyone around them.   
Dirk, Jake, Roxy and Jane all started walking towards the cafeteria, where all students are cluttered around and sat in groups or on their own. The atmosphere is relaxing and cheerful, and everyone keeps their volume down so that everyone can hear each other - except, for one person, of course.  
"I SWEAR TO GOG IF I AM GOING OUT WITH A GUY I'LL STICK MY HEAD INTO THE MOTHERFUCKIN TOILET."  
Ah. There he is. Mr. Shoutypants, a.k.a. Karkat Vantas.  
"You sound more and more like Gamzee now!" A girl in a dull lime-green dress giggled. On her blazer pocket there was sewn the sign of a Leo.  
"HOMO." Half of the crowd insisted, laughing.  
"Jeez, what's up with everyone today." Jane raised a brow.  
"I've heard it was something about Karkat and Eridan making out or some shit." Dirk replied.  
"Who is Eridan?" Roxy questioned.  
"This new kid." Dirk answered, "He's one of those zodiac crazes. He's Aquarius, completing the twelve zodiac people. He was gone for two years until he had came back to attend here. It was said that he's only 16, although the other people are 18."  
The trio gaped at Dirk. "How the heck did you know all this?!"  
Dirk shrugged. "I'm a friend of the most popular guy in the school. He knows everything. Just like how you know all these freaking beauty tips from the most popular girl."  
"You mean that loser Dave? Are you serious?" Roxy rolled her eyes, "All he has is what he calls an "ironic" comic. Nothing else. Are you sure this is all true?"  
Dirk raised a brow, he seems unfazed, although on the inside he's embarrassed to the bone. "That's not important. Let's go and get our food." He walked away to the food counter, with Roxy trailing after him, asking a bunch of questions while Jane and Jake followed, snickering to themselves.

Rose held a giant book of grimoire open and kept silent as she walked across the hallway after lunch, heading to her next class, the law and politics with Ms. Pyrope. Rose was a fast reader, so she's almost halfway through the book even though she only just borrowed this book from the library yesterday. She wasn't watching where she was going, and bumped into another girl. Luckily she didn't fall so it wasn't so awkward. However, she closed her book and prepared to make a proper apology.  
The person whom she bumped into had black, slick hair that reached to the start of the figure's neck. The figure is a girl, determined by her build and her heavy make-up. The figure had green eyes and a jade themed attire that was in the latest fashion. On her blazer pocket there was sewn jade coloured sign of the zodiac Virgo.  
"I'm sorry for the uncomfortable experience of being in accidental contact with you. Please forgive me, if you will."  
"Of course. I forgive you, my dear classmate." The lady spoke, then, both girls busted into laughter.  
"Kanaya, we gotta stop making our speech so formal." Rose laughed while Kanaya nodded.

Jade walked into psychology class as soon as the bell rang to signal that lunch was over. Just in time. She listened to Ms. Serket attentively, smiling in enthusiasm for this subject.


	7. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Now, that the story is this far in, we should introduce the zodiac people (the 24 people John thought are like gods), correct? We'll start with the younger ones for now.  
>  Whoops I forgot to mention Gamzee is a Capricorn along with Kurloz.  
> I'm not going to take the time to explain what quirk they write in. It would just become confusing for new readers. I think.  
> For people who read Homestuck. . . I think you'll find some scenes later. . . Familiar. **

Jade sat down and looked around the classroom. The 18-year-old zodiac crazes seem to be finally complete. We have introduced the "Aquarius", Eridan Ampora, "Cancer", Karkat Vantas, "Virgo", Kanaya Maryam and "Capricorn", Gamzee Makara. The rest? We'll come to them now.  
The first is a girl, her name is Aradia Megido. On her blazer there was woven the sign of Aries. She had black, waist-length hair along with rust red eyes. Her clothes were red-themed and she wore a dress, knee-length white socks along with cowboy boots and a bow boy hat. Aradia is often referred to as the "girl with weird hobbies".  
Second, is a boy. He represents the zodiac sign Taurus, and has an orange-themed fashion. His name is Tavros Nitram. He has a strange hairstyle that is shaved on the either side of his head. He is said to be the "class loser". Although he has robot legs underneath his pants, he doesn't mention or show it to other people. Tavros has bronze eyes.  
Third, is also a boy. He wears a pair of red and blue 3-D glasses and possesses yellow-themed clothes along with golden eyes. He is named Sollux Captor. He is the class coder and computer nerd. He knows all of the codes, and is exceptionally good at ~ATH ending codes. His hairstyle is fairly average and tidy. He represents the zodiac Gemini.  
Fourth, is a girl. As mentioned before, she is the girl in a dull green dress. She is a master at cat puns and knows every single anime in existence - kind of like Jake. Jake used to watch every single movie, and he loves every single one of them. This girl is a Leo, as also mentioned before. She is named Nepeta Legion. She has olive eyes.  
Fifth, is also a girl. She is blind so she is made fun of many times by her peers. She has short hair, like Nepeta, and wears red shades. This girl wears a teal-themed fashion. She has grown used to the repetitive jokes they make. Her name is Terezi Pyrope. She is obsessed with stuffed dinosaurs and justice. Terezi's senses are so sharp she can detect the environment around just by smelling (and licking/tasting) things around her. Not by touching. Just by smelling. She uses her cane as more of a weapon. She is a Libra.  
Sixth in line, is a girl that loves to brag and injure other people with her hypnotism powers. Her name is Vriska Serket, and likes to be a "8itch". She likes to piss people off and is obsessed with giving death threats. It was rumoured that she was the one that made Tavros paralysed from waist-down, as well as making Terezi blind. She had a cerulean-themed fashion and cobalt eyes. She has futuristic, blue coloured glasses. Kind of like safety googles you see in science labs, only dyed light blue. Vriska had waist length ebony hair and loves wearing blue jeans and red converse shoes out of school. She represents Scorpio.  
Seventh, is a boy named Equius Zahhak. He is known for his strong grip and his excessive amount of sweating. He wears shades and blue-themed clothes. He has straight, shoulder length hair. Equius is known for having a dream of being an archer. However. . . It's not looking great with him breaking every bow every time he tries archery. On his shirt there sewn the sign of a Sagittarius.  
Eighth, and finally, is a girl called Feferi Peixes. This girl may have been mentioned last chapter by Dirk, the "most popular girl in the school". She has pink-themed clothes in the latest fashion, like Kanaya. She has heavy make-up on and is an expert at swimming. She represents Pisces, and she gives many beauty tips to other girls just like any popular girl would at an average school.

Nepeta nudged Karkat, smiling innocently once school was over and people were supposed to go back to their dorms.   
"You swore to gog. If you really are dating a guy - or Eridan, in particular, I'm gonna totally ship you two!!" She squealed, before adding, "You also have to stick your head into the toilet." Nepeta snickered at the thought, while Karkat managed to pull a straight face. He can't get angry around Nepeta. "Yaois are the best!!"  
"What the hell is Yaoi."  
"Just means gay ship in anime." She giggled. Nepeta doesn't use cat puns around Karkat, surprisingly.  
"Oh." They walked in silence until Karkat has arrived his dorm. He sighed. "Wish me luck. I'm gonna be stuck with a MPD-plagued best friend."   
Nepeta smiled and gave thumbs-up. "Good luck."  
Once the door closed, she heard a growl of a dog and turned around, face to face with two students that seem to be new.  
"Um . . ."  
"Uh, we're new here but we got caught up in some business so we arrived a day late. Do you know where is the principal's office?"  
Nepeta gestured to the end of the hall. "The last room is the principal's."  
"Thanks!" The boy out of the two smiled cheerfully. Both children have white hair, complexion and clothes. They both have bright green eyes and exceptionally good at navigating (But not in this situation, in case you were wondering).  
The boy is very good at sprinting and traveling long distances. He is open-minded and positive.  
The girl is good at stalking and engaging in activities that need stealth. She is emotionless, however she can be very playful if she needs to.  
The twins arrived the principal office, they knocked the door. "We are the new students, Becquerel Harley and Gina-Catherine Crocker."  
Mr. English raised a brow in question, before remembering they were caught up in some problems about their ID cards and passports so they attended everything two days late late. "Come in."  
The two students walked in, finding the principal searching something up on the computer, before reaching into a drawer and gave both students a key. "Here are your dorm room keys. Room number 433." He gestured outside. "Dinner will be served at the canteen. You may go and eat any time before 9. I suggest you to skip the first two lessons tomorrow morning and go to get your suitcases. You'll be staying here until you're fit to go to a formal university. Understood?"  
Gina-Catherine and Becquerel nodded.   
"By the way, Becquerel, that's a fine name of yours, named after the person who discovered natural radioactivity in uranium salts."  
Becquerel chuckled. "A lot of people say that, and I do have a fascination in radioactivity."  
Gina-Catherine shrugged, "I have a fascination in radioactivity, too. However, with that put aside, you may call us Bec and G-Cat."  
The principal nodded. "Nice meeting you two."  
"Nice meeting you, too, sir."  
The two students turned and walked away, towards their dorm.

Eridan slowly dragged his feet across the marble floor, half of his head buried in his violet scarf, still blushing profusely from the teasing and made his way towards his dorm room and opening the door. He was soon confronted with a soaking wet bedroom. Eridan let out a muffled groan. He must've been paired up with a Pisces, and, just like him, they must swim much more than usual. Eridan patted the blankets on the bottom bunk and the ones on the top bunk. At least his roommate managed to keep one of the bunks clean. He sighed and threw his clothes on the bottom bunk and examined the room. His roommate isn't here yet. Eridan sat down on his bed and reviewed his homework in silence. It's not a lot. He can finish this in an hour. Just in time for dinner at 7.  
If Eridan remembers clearly, his roommate is called Feferi, and he has been told by Karkat that Feferi is one of the Peixes, in which they are the most popular students and the teacher pets.   
Soon, as Eridan was working on an essay about quadrants, a whole entire pail of water was splashed onto him. Eridan immediately stood up, put his papers aside (careful not to rip them), and glared around to find who did this little prank. Then, on the top bunk, there lay Feferi Peixes, with an empty pail, smiling innocently at Eridan.  
"Thought you might need this with Karkat~" She teased, handing Eridan the bucket as his face was clouded with blush - not just from the teasing about him and Karkat being together - but also this girl's appearance and voice. . .

Once Karkat walked into his dorm, he was confronted by a bunch of clown horns.   
"GAMZEE ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!" He yelled, picking up all of the horns, occasionally stepping on some of them, a honking noise filling the room.  
Karkat then opened the closet, and as expected, mountains of clown horns collapsed on top of him. Karkat grumbled and shoved some into the closet before losing his balance and falling over, releasing a loud "HONK" in unison. He grumbled a little and looked around for Gamzee. No one's here. Karkat's emotions turned from anger into worry. Maybe he's having that MPD thing again . . . Karkat immediately stood up and walked over to the desk, finding a note.  
"hey karkat, you know that feeling of motherfucking miracles? i do. and i'm gonna show other people that miracles are real, motherfucker.  
:o)  
HONK"  
"Oh no, oh fuck. . ." Karkat mumbled, running a hand through his hair.   
Then, he heard a high-pitched scream from room 419. Karkat's instinctual switch got flipped on as he ran out of his dorm, careful to lock the door and grab the keys, towards the source of the sound. Karkat stopped dead at a room with an open door, staring at his best friend, slicing down his own face with Nepeta's hand which are equipped with wolverine claws.   
"STOP!" He shouted out of instinct and looked at Gamzee in the eye. Red irises. He bit his lip while he watched Gamzee throw Nepeta onto the ground, who whimpered and seem to be grabbing her right arm in pain.  
Gamzee tilted his head, his eyes open wide and his pupil expanding to an abnormal size in diameter. "You wanna fight, motherfucker?"  
Karkat ran up to Gamzee, his fists ready, and then. . .  
"Shoosh." He put his index finger to his lips, patting Gamzee on the head gently.  
Gamzee seemed to become a little calmer, and didn't attack Karkat.  
That was just enough time for Kurloz, Mr. Makara and Mr. English to arrive. Karkat kept patting Gamzee and exhaled in relief at the arrival of the trio. Kurloz came over and patted Gamzee's back to escort him out of the room.   
"I'm apologise for causing this much damage and inconvenience for the school, and, once again, thank you Karkat." Mr. Makara bowed briefly before leaving.   
"What should we do now?" Karkat asked frantically, realising that Equius is also laid on the ground, passed out and bruises all over his neck.   
Mr. English rubbed his forehead. He seemed tired. "I'll call Dr. Scratch over. Go to your dorm and sleep now, Karkat. Go and eat dinner if you haven't. Just tell them that you got caught up in the Makara Malady business since. . ." He checked the time, "It's 10, it's quite late now."

John decided it would be a good idea to hang out with all his friends sometime.  
So he told Dave, Rose and Jade to sit down at Roxy, Jane, Jake and Dirks table during breakfast.  
"Hey guys!" John said, sitting down with his seven friends who were discussing something that happened last night. "What are you guys talking about?"   
"The Makara Malady." Rose replied.  
"Oh damn."   
"Two of the zodiac people got injured this time." Dave added.  
John winced. "Woah."  
"Nepeta, the Leo, broke her arm and Equius, the Sagittarius, passed out from getting strangled by the neck. I've heard his neck bone got dislocated." Dirk said lazily, stirring his cup of coffee.  
John sat down with his friends and sighed. "Next thing we're gonna have is one of the Serkets causing any trouble, or maybe that new dude - he doesn't seem like good news. Water-based zodiacs never seem to turn out good with other people."  
"Yep." Roxy agreed, sipping her tea.  
"Wait, this time?" Jade asked, "There has been previous events about this guy?"  
"Yeah." Dirk looked at Jade quizzically. "What, you're new?"  
"Um. . . Even though the records didn't say, yeah. We know everything about this school because our parents graduated from here. So we didn't need anyone to show us around."  
"We?"  
"Yeah. We're all friends, remember? But you guys are 17 while we're 16."  
"Oh. Right."  
From just one year of not contacting to each other, this group of friends barely even remembered some simple things that they knew about each other.   
"Hey, Jane and Jake are both quiet, are you two okay?"  
"Wait, what?" Jane immediately jerked back from her staring session at Jake, while Jake just sat there, thinking.  
Roxy slapped Jane's back playfully. "Oooo, someone's got feelings for Jake~"  
Jake looked up at the blonde, confused. "Huh?"  
"Shut up." Jane grumbled while the rest of the table laughed heartily.  
"I've heard that there are two new students. They arrived a day late." Rose said.  
"Yep." Dave answered.  
"Oh. Good gravy, what are their names?" Jane asked.  
"Becquerel Harley and Gina-Catherine Crocker."  
"He's my cousin!" "She's my cousin!" Jane and Jade exclaimed in unison, while John was scratching his head in confusion.  
"I don't remember having Becquerel or Gina-Catherine as my cousin. The closest I remember is Bec."  
Jade face-palmed. "Becquerel is his full name, okay?" She said, annoyed.  
"Ooohhh-" John smacked himself in the head, while the rest of the table laughed as well.

The room was dark as the man dressed in white and green grinned, holding a scalpel to his chest, a note laid neatly on his desk, written in white on a bright green piece of paper.  
"You'll come soon, my Lord."


	8. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **OOC's are perfectly normal in here. (Jade being slightly mean, Jake not using his fancy vocabulary) There's a reason for it.  
>  Also I use the word "gog" in order to replace the word "God", since I'm christian please bear with me-**

"Attention all students of SBURB, please stay indoors at your dorms until further notice. There has been injury of a member of staff and three students. Please return to your rooms until further notice. There will be no further academical training until noticed, as well."  
The warning echoed across the hallways of the school along with the canteen.   
There was a moment of silence before the whole entire canteen screaming and cheering in happiness, however they were immediately silenced by a loud whistle by a boy in bright red apparel.  
"SILENCE, SBURB. ALTHOUGH THE PRINCIPAL HAS TOLD US SCHOOL HAS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, WE STILL NEED DISCIPLINE AND ORDER, THANK YOU."   
Silence once again welcomed this 'police's speech.  
Until a girl in abnormally long braids stood up and yelled, "KANKRI, IMMA TELL YOU SOMEFIN, THIS IS GETTING REEL NOW; YOU FUCKIN TEACHERS PET, WOULD YOU SHUT THE SHELL UP!" This girl only start to use fish puns when she's very angry, by very, we do mean v e r y.  
The boy named Kankri raised his head up high, looking down at this girl with his extremely pale red irises. "Very well. You would like to challenge my place, Meenah Peixes?"   
The crowd yelled, "OH, BURN!"  
The girl named Meenah tapped her shoe on the ground, looking at Kankri with her equally pale fuchsia coloured irises. "Kankri Fuckin Vantas, I swear to gog, if you say anyfin about learnin somefin durin this break, I'm gonna fuckin cut your throat into a million pieces."  
Kankri raised a brow and smiled. "Try me."  
Meenah growled, about to bring her fist to Kankri's face, however, a girl in cerulean with pale cobalt eyes, wearing glasses, stopped Meenah.   
"WHAT THE FUCK ARANEA?!"  
"Seriously, Meenah, don't do it. Kankri's-"  
"I CAN'T TAKE HIS SHIT ANY LONGER, OKAY?"  
Aranea immediately let go, Meenah is scary when she's angry.  
Meenah tried again, trying to punch Kankri in the side of his cheek, however he dodged and swept Meenah off-balance. Meenah growled some more in anger and stood up, managing to land a solid hit on the side of Kankri's chin. Kankri did not move, just standing there, allowing some blood to drip from his mouth. He smirked and shrugged. "Is that all you can do?"  
Meenah, completely driven by anger, grabbed a chair and swung it at Kankri. He dodged swiftly and stood back up. He, however, did not attack in any manner.   
"Such violent behaviour is unacceptable and possibly triggering to some suicidal people, can you please tag such content." Kankri said, spitting out blood.  
"YOU tag your own rantin first, you fuckin piece of shit." Meenah continued to swing the furniture at Kankri.  
"Why should I tag my ranting? Is it even ranting, when it is a reminder of telling someone to tag their extremely unacceptable violent behaviour?"  
"Shut the shell up, or else I'm gonna make you feel reel sorry-"  
The crowd just watched them two fight, chanting while John and his friends decided to leave before they get into any trouble. For some reason, to John's friends' surprise, the English twins aren't even present. The new students, Peregrine Mendicant, Serenity, Aimless Renegade and Wayward Vagabond don't seem to be here, either. However, other things have clouded these eight children's minds.  
"Meenah challenging Kankri? That was a bad choice, damn." Dirk commented.  
"What's with that?" John asked, confused.  
"Kankri's the teacher's pet. He knows all, and has perfect A's and A Pluses in every subject. So he's like the discipline organiser for the whole entire school." Roxy winked.  
"Oh. I see."  
"How about what Mr. English said? Three students and a member of staff were injured. That kind of worries me-" Jade stated, before getting cut off by Dave.  
"Gamzee was hurt, too. He sliced the fuck out of his face with Nepeta's wolverine claws."   
"How about the teacher?"  
"Oh, Dr. Scratch? Mr. English lied."  
"What's the truth? He's okay?"  
"What? Fuck no. He's dead."  
Silence. The gang gaped at Dave.  
"What? Are you serious? Dead?"   
"Yeah."  
Jake, Jane, and Rose remained quiet.  
"Hey, Jake, you usually talk a lot. Anything wrong?" Roxy waved a hand in front of Jake's face.   
"Oh, ahoy, mates, what were we talking about again?" Jake asked, obviously awkward. He broke a nervous smile, swung his arm across his chest as he spoke, like a pirate.  
"Dr. Scratch's dead." John helped out.  
"Good gravy, what in the living gog happened?"  
Everyone looked to Dave.  
"Suicide. I got to see the corpse before Mr. English this morning."  
Dirk nodded, that makes sense.  
"It was a scapel. There was even a suicide note. I wasn't sure what it wrote, though. Mr. English arrived too soon."  
"That sounds a little more reassuring than knowing what Dr. Scratch wrote." Jade shivered. "Who knows what he wrote in there."  
Rose nodded in agreement, staying silent as usual.  
The rooms came into view as the boys and girls broke into their groups of two sorted by each dorm.  
"Come to play often?" Jane suggested, since all of them would be quite bored, it might be a good idea for these friends to go around the dorms.  
"I'm going to draw." Dirk said, reaching for his keys.  
Jake shrugged, he's okay with it. Rose said she had some creative writing and essays to do, while Jade said she needed to revise her psychology knowledge for the next pop quiz. Roxy, as Jane's roommate, was always free. After recovering from her drinking habit, Roxy had spent more time on studying and trying to prepare for her degrees in the future.   
Everyone looked at John and Dave, who didn't reply to Jane's suggestion.  
"Uh, Dave and I, we have other things to do. We'll catch up later!" John replied nervously, thinking about the 413 questions they have written down. The list is far from complete, and he doesn't really want his friends to think he is crazy. Dave has already left, closing the dorm room door.  
John turned around to leave, before Jade grabbing the boy's blotch of gelled hair back.   
"John, I hope "Other Things" isn't another nickname for Dave!"   
The rest of the group bursted into laughter, while John's face flushed red.  
"I am not a homosexual!" John roared, over his friends' giggling as he stormed off.  
Half way there, Jade called, breathless.  
"Oh, SURE you are. You've always liked Dave."  
John looked at Jade, on the verge of crying. It was enough, Jade teasing him in front of his father at home, and now THIS.   
"I DON'T LIKE DAVE! YOU'RE A LIAR!"  
John fumbled for his keys with his fingers, before inserting the silver pass into the door, turned it clockwise and slammed it shut. He felt something hot trickle down his cheek, then another streamed. And another sprinted down his skin. It was two drops of the warm liquid. Then four. Ten. A dozen. A baker's dozen. And then, there were so much he couldn't even count. The poor boy wept in silence, making sure that his roommate wasn't listening to tease him about how childish the small nerd is being.  
__________  
Wayward Vagabond, along with his roommate, Serenity along with Peregrine Mendicant, sat down in one of their rooms after the announcment that Mr. English announced.  
"As much as I don't trust that man named Hussie - but what he said is right - they have no memory of what happened before in SBURB in any way. They even completely changed their age to how old they think themselves are, not what they are when they finished the game." Serenity pointed out, he eyes narrowed.  
"Even how they're paired up is different." Wayward Vagabond suggested, "Shouty (Karkat) and the fish boy (Eridan) seem to be put together instead of with the Texan cool boy (Dave), while the purple text girl (Rose) and serious troll (Kanaya) are just staying as plain friends right now-"  
A yell echoed through the hall, "I AM NOT A HOMOSEXUAL!" and soon followed by the slam of the door, "I DON'T LIKE DAVE, YOU'RE A LIAR!"  
"Aaaaand there goes windy boy (John) being with cool kid."  
Aimless Renegade is outside the school campus, practising his shooting skills using his rifle.  
"Don't forget how they acted differently." Peregrine Mendicant said sternly. "How the British boy (Jake) isn't talking a lot, and Rose actually laughing. The Rose in our universe never laughs."  
"Very true." Serenity sighed, "And the teacher is questioning why my essays and works are dots, slashes and dashes. That's my quirk! The rules of the school was to write in our quirk, and I did! It's called the morse code!" She exhaled, frustrated.  
Way patted the girl on the shoulder reassuringly. "This isn't important at the moment. The important thing is that this school's principal is so potentially dangerous he himself doesn't even know!"  
Peregrine nodded. "We were sent here by the Hussie guy. I hope he arrives soon, he says he's going to once our school shuts down from teaching for a moment. And that's now . . ."   
__________  
It was night, and Eridan Ampora is driving his car to pick Mr. Shoutypants up from the bar.  
No, it's not one of those bars where you see on the street.  
The bar Eridan is going to is the kind where they serve alcoholic drinks and where you dance all night.  
Sure, it's something like a holiday, but there still is homework, and who knows when they would start school again. Sure, they're 18, but they still shouldn't be drinking, especially when the school forbids it.   
Eridan is also pretty sure they haven't met the standards of New York's age of consent, either.  
Well, Roxy drank for a while, Rose also did for a few days and the school didn't stop them. Maybe it is allowed, but still, Karkat needs sleep as much as anyone else.  
Every other troll was busy, so Eridan had to go himself. Probably all of the teasing about him and Karkat being an item stressed the poor Mexican out, and has caused the tanned boy to try his luck with alcohol and cocktail.  
Eridan sighed quietly, his eyes fixed on the road.  
Once he arrived, he can already hear the defeaning boom of dance music in the distance. The small boy in the violet scarf can winced, his head pounding already, as if someone had just whacked him upside down in the head with a rubber mallet. This fueled his anger, for some reason - Karkat isn't supposed to be here! It's not healthy!  
Eridan put on his brave face, pulling his scarf down, walked into the building, yelling with the loudest voice he could, "KARKAT FUCKING VANTAS!" It was louder than Meenah Peixes, but the tone was all the same - the anger, the annoyance - except for one element, for some reason, the small boy actually felt different - worry - something Meenah definitely didn't feel when she was trying to punch Kankri in the face.  
The Mexican seemed to look over at Eridan, with mixed feelings. The whole entire club was silent, until the people started laughing hysterically, Eridan had caught the vague sentence, "Someone's boyfriend has come to pick him up~"  
Eridan was genuinely scared at this point, he saw the Mexican make his way over to the Scottish boy, his eyes dilated as he took a sip from his cup.  
"What are you doing here? Hm? You're making a fool of myself, why'd you do that? You humiliated me, you ungrateful little fucker." Something in Karkat's voice seemed wrong, he doesn't seem like the usual soft, gentle and patient guy. He is now a rough, insensitive and easily angered.  
"Ever since you came here it has become worse, it's all your fault." He slurred, taking another sip as Eridan backed away.  
"I'll teach you a lesson." Karkat's voice sounded like he was snapping, full of pure hatred and disappointment, as he slapped the Scottish across the face, again and again until the poor boy was lifting up his scarf to his cheekbone, trying to defend himself desperately, sobbing quietly.


	9. Chapter 7

"Four hundred and thirteen questions. Four one three, four one three. . ." John mumbled, twirling his pen in his right hand. It has been hours since he had thrown his tantrum about falling for Dave. It's already morning. Thank gog the Strider didn't notice or question anything. It would've been rather embarrassing.  
"Yo Egbert."  
"What?"  
"There's a game behind the spirograph. You know that, right?"  
"Huh? Really?"  
"Fuck. I thought you knew the name."  
Silence.  
"Should you search it up on your computer?"  
"Too lazy." The Strider turned around on his swivel chair near his desk, peering at the smaller boy through his shades. It's hard to tell the colour of his irises.  
John rolled his eyes. "Fine."  
He walked over to Dave, pulled out the laptop out of his bag and sat on the bed.  
"Hey, any idea about our internet explorer choices?"  
"Whatcha mean, Egbert?"  
"Our geography teachers. Our internet explorers are named after them."  
"Hm. . ."  
"See?" John gestured towards his application, his mouse hovering over the label. It read 'Typheus'.  
"I do remember a teacher named Typheus."  
"That counts as another question, right?"  
"Sure."  
John jotted it down onto his list, mumbling "Number 87. . .", before placing his pen in his mouth, biting on the end of the stick. Not a nice thing to do, but it's one of his habits anyway.  
Yep, there are far from finishing it. 413 questions didn't seem like a problem at first, until they have actually poured everything out from their minds onto pen and ink.  
The boy returned to his laptop, his pepsi blue eyes fixed on the screen that reflected clearly on his glasses.  
He clicked in the search box, and typed in 'spirograph', but then paused before deciding to type in all the key words in. He went back, and carefully typed in 'green' before the word 'spirograph'.  
John pressed enter.  
He was confronted by a bunch of other things that he had never seen in his life. He dropped his pen, his eyes and mouth wide open in shock.  
__________  
Beep. . . Beep. . . Beep. . .  
The boy who laid in bed slowly lifted up his eyelids. He grimaced at the immediate headache. The tall boy looked around, every muscle in his body hurt, his arms stuck with several IV drops like some kind of voodoo doll.  
"Karkat Vantas?" A man in the white suit looked down at the boy in bed.  
"I. . . Yes." Karkat tried to raise his hand to rub his head, but he couldn't. He can't remember how he even ended up here. He looked at the man with half-lidded eyes.  
"Or is it Karkat Fucking Vantas?" The man raised a brow, that's when everything hit Karkat like a huge tsunami, but it was only a small glimpse. He felt dizzy and sick in the stomach, the heart monitor increased the pace of its beeping by almost twice, or maybe thrice as more. He drank alcohol last night. . .  
"N- No. . . Just Karkat Vantas, thank you. . ." He managed to say, as the person hurried out the room.  
Karkat looked up at the ceiling, seeing the spirograph. He's at school. . . But how? He looked to the side, finding a small figure curled up in bed. It seems to be shivering, its build not even natural for an eighteen year old. The small boy's head is turned away from him, a pair of shattered black glasses and a torn-up violet scarf lay on the bedside table.  
Karkat sucked in a shaky breath, his once drunken mind piecing what happened last night all together.  
That boy, that smaller boy who is laid in the bed next to him, is the sixteen-year-old Eridan Ampora.  
His glasses are broken and his scarf is completely destroyed, too. How did that happen?  
Karkat's mind is allowing memories to come back, but it's too slow for him. He lay here, for a while, until the worst had finally seeped in.  
Oh my. . . What did I do to Eridan. . .?  
Karkat looked over to the smaller boy that is almost curled up under the blankets.  
Did I kill him. . .?  
Karkat held his breath, the heart monitor's beeping speeding up once more.  
Cut it out. You'll never do such a thing.  
He caught the slight rising and falling of Eridan's chest.  
Thank gog.  
Karkat lay back down in his hospital bed, the man in the white suit came back as he immediately pretended he was sleeping.  
Out of the corner of Karkat's narrowed eye, he saw the doctor shaking Eridan gently to wake the Scottish up.  
"Dr. Hussie?" Eridan mumbled.  
"Yes. That's me."  
The violet boy sat up almost immediately, looking towards Karkat's bed. "Is he awake yet? Did he. . . Leave?" There was an obvious tone of panic in Eridan's voice.  
"No, no. Shh-" Dr. Hussie comforted immediately, pushing Eridan back down onto the bed. "He woke up. He's okay."  
Karkat turned away from Eridan, his back facing the duo. He caught a glimpse of Eridan's bandaged face and body that is wrapped almost like a miniature modern mummy.  
I did this to him. But he still cares about me like his life depends on it. I don't fucking deserve him.  
__________  
Dirk is on his drawing tablet, attempting to draw the best he could, showing Jake over and over again.  
"Why in the world would you draw like that? It's like you're trying to draw these anime or whatever these cartoons you watch."  
"They're not cartoons!" Dirk fumed, returning to drawing once more.  
There was an awkward silence in between them. Both of the boys are wearing their casual clothes they have packed, due to the fact right now it's somewhat like a school holiday.  
"Hey Dirk, you have any idea about what's happening between Dave and John? John seems to be losing his marbles over Dave."  
"Mm." Was the only reply.  
More silence.  
"Also, I've got a feeling that the new nurse of the school isn't good news. . ." Jake trailed off.  
Dirk turned around, lifting his head up from his drawing and fixed his anime shades as Jake looked down at the floor.  
"What, Dr. Hussie?"  
"Yep. Dr. Scratch got fired, remember? Mr. English announced that."  
"Oh."  
"The new twins and the mummy-like people - they're also pretty creepy."  
"Mhm."  
Jake looked back up, finding Dirk at his drawing again. The tanned British sighed, kicking his shoes off and brought his knees up to his chest like a child.  
Does Dirk truly care at all? Is he even a good friend to have? Jake wanted to question all of these thoughts, but he can't. He doesn't have anyone to talk to. Jane is most likely taking baking lessons. John and Dave have things to do. Jade is studying, Rose is writing about magic. . .  
Maybe Roxy? She had stopped drinking, so surely she would have free time?  
Jake immediately got off the bed, slipping his trainers on and grabbed the keys, stuffing it into his shorts.  
"Where are you going, Jake?"  
"To Roxy and Jane's room."  
"Want to hit on some girls, eh?" Dirk teased.  
Jake raised a brow, "Too bad you're such a chicken you hopelessly fall for the girls in your cartoons."  
Dirk's ears seemed to turn crimson, "I repeat-"  
But Jake already had closed the door, heading towards his friend's room, hearing a muffled yell of the sentence 'THEY'RE NOT CARTOONS!'.  
__________  
Wayward Vagabond was fondling with a bunch of Legos to build townships and town squares as Peregrine Mendicant and Serenity sat down in Dr. Hussie's office.  
"Now what?" Serenity asked, her face suspicious. Hussie doesn't look like a man that can be trusted.  
"Have you figured out who is who in the school yet?"  
"Duh."  
"Now the rest is up to yourselves. They all have something inside of them that triggers their memories, and I have to fulfil my place as a doctor, so that I don't get suspected. Good luck."  
Peregrine Mendicant slammed the table angrily, "You think that can be over, just handing the responsibility over to us? YOU'RE the one who brought us here, YOU'RE the one who has told us that you would help. And now you're going back on your word?"  
Dr. Hussie, who had white irises and a tanned complexion, raised a brow, before chuckling.  
"It was your choice to come here, and since when I promised you my word? After all, all I am is a narrative prompt. The story is up to yourselves. Now, if you excuse me, your yelling and slamming tables are shocking my young patients. May I see to them, please?" The man stood up.  
"No." Serenity's voice was firm, she was about to swing her fist at Dr. Hussie, but instead, at the last second, in front of her wasn't the man, but it was a small boy, without his scarf and his nerdy glasses, he was still recognisable as Eridan Ampora. Serenity couldn't stop herself as she landed a hard hit onto Eridan's gut. She immediately pulled her hand away and covered her open mouth in shock. She can hear the Scottish wheezing, she can hear the tears trickling down the smaller boy's face, she can feel herself falling, falling and falling . . .  
__________  
Peregrine Mendicant looked around for Serenity, but the girl is gone, nowhere to be seen.  
"What the hell?"  
"This universe eliminates anything that isn't supposed to happen." Hussie smirked, picking the unconscious Scottish up and walked to the wing where Karkat is laid.  
"What did he mean. . .?" Way shivered, looking at Peregrine.  
"I think another girl was supposed to harm Eridan in the stomach, not Serenity. . ."  
"Oh. . ."  
Peregrine sighed. "You, Aimless and I are the only people who possess the memories before along with Dr. Hussie now. We should get them to remember as soon as possible - it's a race against this universe. I'm pretty sure if this universe knows we're not supposed to be here, they would set endless obstacles to slow us down, kill us, or make us lose our memories as well."  
Way seemed uneasy, feeling huge responsibility resting on his shoulders. "We're only exiles, how can we trigger any memories in any way?"  
"I think the Windy boy (John) and the Coolkid (Dave) actually has a lot of hope of convincing them or maybe triggering them. I've heard them talking about something like 413 questions. Maybe we can give those two a shot?"  
"Once Hussie is gone, we should try Shouty (Karkat) and Fish boy (Eridan). They're the closest to us, you know." Way suggested.  
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure he's listening, and also, I think they're pretty happy with each other. I don't want to ruin Karkat's feelings because his old self dated Dave."  
"Makes sense." Way said.  
"Let's head. . . Back to the dorm."  
Before Way left the environment, he glanced around the room, a tear sliding down his cheek. "I miss you already, Serenity. . ."  
__________  
Meenah has already been told off by Mr. English about her trying to harm Kankri, or possibly killing the boy in red.  
Kankri had insisted he didn't need to go to the hospital wing, saying that it was only a punch in the chin, and a little bit of blood caused by biting his own tongue.  
No one objected, knowing that Kankri had experienced much more wounds that are worse than this, and had miraculously survived without any medical treatment. Some of the injuries were even life-threatening.  
Kankri smiled in satisfaction before walking back into his room.  
Once Meenah had got out of the office, she was welcomed by a not-so-happy cerulean girl. The fuchsia girl rolled her eyes.  
"Aranea, I know I shouldn't have done that, okay?"  
"It's more important than that!" Aranea exclaimed, "Challenging Kankri's place using violence? Number one, it is against the school rules, and number two, you know fully well that it is almost impossible to severely injure the Vantas' because of their strange genetics."  
Meenah rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I don't give a fuck."  
"Meenah!" Aranea said in frustration, fixing her white glasses and managed to balance her large book.  
"Fine."  
"Promise you'll never do something that stupid again?"  
"Maybe."  
Aranea gave a death stare.  
Meenah threw her hands up in the air to show her surrender and defeat. She wouldn't want the cerulean girl to use her psychological manipulative skills.  
"Okay, okay! I promise!"  
"Good." Aranea smiled, her gaze turning normal.  
Meenah swung an arm around Aranea, "Besides, why are you so serious about everything?"  
Aranea grumbled, "None of your business."  
Meenah let out a hearty laugh, they two starting to walk towards their room.


	10. Chapter 8

John was confronted with the usual spirograph commercials, but there it was, the symbol on their school in Google images. He clicked into it, and it said "logo of SBURB, 'Homestuck'".  
The boy furrowed his brow and called Dave over. "Check this out!"  
Once the Texan was sitting beside John, the smaller boy showed Dave the unknown word.  
"What is 'Homestuck'?"  
"I don't know, man."  
"Should I search it up?"  
"Naw. We've already got the name of the game, right?"  
"It's. . ." John narrowed his eyes, "SBURB Beta." He concluded, frowning.  
"Isn't that the name of this school?" Dave pointed to the floor of the duo's room.  
"Mhm." John agreed, "But I'm positive that's the name."  
"Weird."  
John closed the laptop, and stretched, popping his back.  
"We can leave this till later. Since we have nothing to do, should we go and play some laser tag? It's just around the corner and I think it would be nice to invite the zodiac people and the new guys to get to know each other better."  
"Hell yes."  
John, changed into his own clothes consisting of a t-shirt with a picture of a green worm from Ghostbusters, and a pair of knee-length shorts. The school doesn't care where the children go, so long they come back when it is time for class. Right now it's a holiday so the students have a perfect excuse.  
Dave did the same, changing into a shirt that had long, red sleeves and a record on the center.  
John grabbed the key and stuck it into his pocket, before sending a message out to every student in the school. It read,  
"hey guys! dave and i think that we can go to the laser tag down the street. if you guys wanna go, please reply and meet me at the school gates. bring your own money, we'll probably be eating something there. its up to you guys if you want us to pay!"  
John showed Dave the message. The cool kid nodded as they left the room, heading down the four flights of stairs and towards the gates.  
__________  
It's like the whole entire school came to life. Almost every student came to meet with John and Dave.   
Almost.  
It was always the usual that the English twins don't show up, but for some reason they did today. Serenity is nowhere to be seen. Karkat and Eridan aren't here, either. Aimless Renegade, Peregrine explained, was off somewhere to practise his shooting again.  
The English twins stood, neglected from the crowd and kept their masks on. No one really saw their true faces, it was as if that the two had a strange aura that is dark, but not evil; if that is possible.  
"Is that everyone?" John managed to say over the crowd. Everyone seemed to nod.  
Soon, John and Dave started walking down the street, the crowd split up into their seperate friend groups. There were an older set of people, they are the older siblings of the zodiacs we introduced earlier on.   
We know Kurloz Makara, and got to know Meenah Peixes along with her friend, Aranea Serket, as well as the boy in red named Kankri Vantas.   
Meenah is the sister of Feferi. Aranea is the sister of Vriska. Kankri is the brother of Karkat.  
The rest all respectively, in order:  
Damara Megido (Sister of Aradia), Rufioh Nitram (Brother of Tavros), Mituna Captor (Brother of Sollux), Meulin Leijon (Sister of Nepeta), Porrim Maryam (Sister of Kanaya), Latula Pyrope (Sister of Terezi) and Cronus Ampora (Brother of Eridan).  
Once they arrived, everyone filed through the doors. The workers all looked towards the people questionably, wondering why suddenly there would be so many people on a normal school day. However, they didn't complain. The children bought their tickets and started to put on their suits and handled their laser guns.   
To everyone's surprise, Jake went off and came back with a pair of pistols. He twirled them in his hands swiftly and skillfully. The workers were confused, too. Wondering why Jake would choose this type when he can use machine guns.  
Jade, Roxy, and the male of the English twins went off and found a rifle for themselves.  
The female of the English twins pulled out a pistol as well, not saying a word.  
Then, the people started to split up further, the zodiac kids, twenty-two in total, stood in one area while the rest, sixteen of them, the new students included, stood in the other.   
The children split up further into red team and blue team as they got lead into different game areas.  
It was quite easy for the zodiac kids, the siblings went together and they were seperated evenly. Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Capricorn on the red team, while the blue team had Aries, Gemini, Leo, Sagittarius, Aquarius and Pisces. They proceeded to playing their first round almost immediately.  
As for the other group. . . They barely knew each other, but they found a way. After briefly introducing themselves, John decided to use the classical way.  
John is the leader of the blue team, while Dave is red.   
As they picked, they started off with flipping a coin. John chose heads while Dave chose tails. It landed on heads, so John would start.  
John thought long and hard, before choosing Roxy.  
Dave raised a brow. "Nice choice, man. Roxy's good."  
"Mhm!" John said, smiling goofily at the seemingly older girl.  
Dave tapped his fingers, before choosing Becquerel.  
Roxy whispered to John, urging the boy to choose someone. John nodded slightly.  
"Jake."  
A moment of confusion flashed across Dave's face before hearing Becquerel whisper something as well.  
"G-Cat."  
John pondered his options, before settling for the male of the English twins.  
Dave immediately chose Jaspers, after discussing a little with G-Cat.  
John then chose the female of the English twins.  
Dave chose Dirk.  
John thought for a while before choosing Jade.  
Dave chose Rose.  
John chose Maplehoof.  
Dave smiled, and chose Way. Way walked over to the red team as the Texan patted the boy on the back in a platonic way.  
John shrugged and picked Jane.  
Dave chose the final person left, who is Peregrine.  
All of them pulled their sci-fi like glasses over the top half of their faces and smiled. One of the workers yelled a count down as both members of the team positioned themselves in front of the entrance of the game area.   
"FIVE!"  
John looked to Dave and gave a goofy grin. Dave seemingly rolled his eyes. John wonders how Dave would act so normal with the shades pressed into his skin with the glasses over his face.  
"FOUR!"  
Everybody braced themselves. The area is full hedges that were perfect for camouflage, which can be both a blessing and a curse.  
"THREE!"  
John adjusted the microphone near his mouth. "Everyone's microphones and speakers are working, right?"  
"TWO!"  
There was a unison 'Yes.'  
"ONE!"  
"Alright."  
"GO!"  
The people from both teams dashed into the maze of fake hedges and walls.  
__________  
There was one thing Dave had realised - the people he picked onto his team didn't disappoint. Although he is very nimble himself, he can see G-Cat, Jaspers and Bec dashing in and out of the hedges, barely even getting shot by the laser guns. These people, he realised, are all very flexible people that probably been training themselves about parkour. Dirk is flash-stepping everywhere, the opposing team barely even catching a glimpse of who just shot them in the head.  
However, John has chosen many good shooters onto his team. He had Jake who were mastering his double pistols and Jade, Roxy and the female English with rifles. The red team are outnumbered, his team doesn't have enough accurate shooters.  
Plus, he has no idea where some of John's teammates are.  
He heard the manatone voice echo through the speaker, "Game over."  
All he heard was cheering of the blue team - the first round was over, and John's team won. As theh were all celebrating, Dave's team congratulated them.  
Jake, along with Calliope and Caliborn seemed bored.  
"What's wrong?" John asked, "Aren't you guys happy that we won?"  
Jake raised a brow while Caliborn and Calliope just remained in their poker face.  
"It's too easy for them." Dirk explained, walking over to Jake and patting the boy on the shoulder.  
"Too easy? Seriously?" John frowned.   
Jake and the twins nodded in unison.  
"How hard do you guys even want it?"  
Roxy walked over from the crowd as well, her arms folded across her chest, smiling. "Jakey boy can take down a full team of 5 to 8 opponents within a few minutes or less. Counting the 7 different parts of the body you have to shoot."  
"Damn." John exclaimed, "Using just a pair of pistols? How? Is that even possible?"   
Roxy had a constant mischievous grin the whole way, "See for yourself, Johnny."  
John nodded quietly. "Guys, we're gonna switch it up a bit! Everyone is going to be on the red team while the English twins and Jake would be on blue team!"  
Everyone seemed confused for a second, but slowly obeyed John.  
Everyone ran into the game area again, but Jake and the English twins stood behind to give them a headstart.  
The girl of the English twins brought the small microphone to her lips.  
"Calliope speaking, we're gonna run in and split in three different directions. Make sure we are in a triangular position. We are taking on fifteen people at once, any error of any kind is not tolerated."  
"Copy." Jake and Caliborn called, running into the maze with Calliope.  
Meanwhile, John is glancing around cautiously, careful about what Roxy said. It's echoing over and over.  
Jakey boy can take down a full team of 5 to 8 opponents within a few minutes or less. Counting the 7 different parts of the body you have to shoot. . .  
Although this time, his team now has a bunch of flash-steppers, additionally he and his fourteen teammates outnumbers the 'Holy Shooting Trinity' severely, but he is still-  
John's thoughts got interrupted by feeling the pads on his head and both of his shoulders buzz.   
Shit. I got shot.  
He immediately took off running straight forward, but that was a bad idea. The male of the English twins aimed his rifle for a second, before shooting John precisely in the chest. Jake jumped out of the hedges out of nowhere and shot both of John's legs as he felt from behind, the base of his spine near the abdomen buzzed.  
"OUT!" The speaker in his helmet yelled.  
Calliope smirked, twirling her pistol behind John.   
"Scatter!" She yelled into the microphone, as she and Jake disappeared almost immediately.  
Damn. These guys know how to work together.  
John raised a brow, hefted his machine gun and walked out of the arena.  
__________  
Eridan shook Karkat gently, almost frantically.  
The Mexican opened his eyes a little, he looked rather strange without his heavy eyeliner, Eridan figured. It's not the negative, the weird kind of strange. It's this. . . Better strange.  
Karkat raised a brow and chuckled lightly at Eridan, his breath is so weak it sounded like more of a wheeze.   
"Hi Karkat!" Eridan gave a huge grin, but immediately faltered when he saw something flash suddenly in Karkat's eyes. Anger. Guillt.  
"I'm sorry. . ." The Mexican looked down.  
"It's okay!" Eridan forgave Karkat as if it was such an easy thing, "I'm alive, so that's all good! Besides, I can be one of those mummies or one of the new guys, like Peregrine or Way!"   
Karkat managed a small smile, pretending to get over the fact that Eridan shouldn't be that nice to him.  
"Hey. . . Eri. . ." Karkat chuckled internally at the new nickname he gave the Scottish.  
"Yeah, Kar?" They're already making nicknames for each other, the thought made Eridan giggle.  
"I. . . Drank a lil more than I should. . . Didn't I. . . A. . . Again. . ." His voice was barely a whisper, weak and raspy.  
"Again?" Eridan frowned, "But yeah. . . You were drunk." Eridan shivered.  
"Is Dr. Hussie here?"  
"No. That's why I woke you up!" Eridan chirped.  
Karkat lifted up his arm for a minute, before dropping it down again. "Heh, I looked like a voodoo doll, don't I. . ."  
Eridan gave a small nod. "A friendly voodoo doll!" He said, smiling.  
Karkat smiled back. Eridan forgives him, and he's slowly starting to feel better. Maybe he does deserve the small boy.


	11. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me repeat this one more time;  
> oocs. are. perfectly. normal  
> also, writer's block, so please bear with me. feel free to suggest who i should write on next, since my narration are mainly focused on the beta kids, alpha kids, karkat + eridan, meenah + aranea, and occasionally rose + kanaya on their own. if you want me to start including what is happening to certain characters (for example you want to know about certain dancestors and their relationship with the others in their age group, just tell me!), just drop a comment here and on this chapter, ill see to it. ^^

Gamzee has recovered from his dangerous MPD sympton and had come back to school. But for some reason, Mr. English decided that he would't let school start for probably another week. He has already notified everyone about this news, but the students so caught up in talking about how awesome laser tag was, they didn't even mention a bit about school. Or homework, for that matter.  
John had been absolutely amazed by Jake's skills in shooting, as compared to by the laser tag. He later had also learnt that Dirk and Dave actually are really good at sword fighting. As for Roxy, she is a magician master. She can make things seemingly appear out of thin air and can toss and play cards at her will. Rose seems to know everything, and it was said she can conjure and summon dark spirits as well as powers. Jane is obviously a genius at baking, and could make cakes in which when you slice them open, different pictures and patterns were seen. She can even bake cakes that look like a purse along with edible make-up items inside. Jade is actually secretly training herself on how to parkour, and her brother has got to admit - she's pretty decent; although his father would not allow such a thing.  
Jake has talked to Roxy about Dirk - and Roxy, being the sister of the Strider, just smiled, playing it off. "Dirk probably cares a lot about ya, you just don't know. Cut him some slack - he has a hard time expressing his true feelings." Jake, feeling a little more reassured, nodded.  
Both Eridan and Karkat had recovered, but Dr. Hussie has already stated that Karkat should stop drinking as soon as possible as much as possible - it has become life-threatening to both the Scottish and the Mexican. Dr. Hussie stated furthermore that if Karkat becomes an alcoholic there is a very low chance where he would turn back; and advised Eridan to stay away from Karkat most of the time at all costs, especially when it is night time. If Karkat continues to drink alcohol they might need to start curfew for the poor boy.  
Eridan puffed out his chest and gave a brave smile, "I'm staying with Karkat. He's my best friend and I'm pretty sure no one else would fill in the gap instead of him."  
Karkat smiled thankfully at the Scottish in response, he has a feeling he and Eridan can be best frineds for a long time.  
__________  
Peregrine Mendicant knocked on John's dorm's door.  
There were quick footsteps coming towards the door. The doorknob turned as a boy with albino hair, fair conplexion and a pair of shades poked out of the gap. "What do you all want?" The boy seemed to quirk his brow quizzically at the new students.  
Peregrine Mendicent was disappointed that John didn't answer the door, but she kept her cool, "May we come in?"  
"Dude, I'm not letting you in unless you tell me what the fuck you want."  
Peregrine inhaled sharply at the explicit response, but nodded towards Way.  
Way seemed to tremble for a second, "It's something we were wondering becuase we heard you and John talking about the '413 Questions' project."  
"Oh?"  
"Yeah."  
"Sorry, dudes. I'm pretty sure you'll think we're crazy if we tell you about it. Is that all?"  
Peregrine raised a brow, "Yes, but-"  
The door was soon slammed shut in interruption.  
"Fuck." Peregrine rubbed her head in frustration.  
"Um. . . So should we go and try on Karkat or Eridan?" Way asked tentatively  
Peregrine looked to Way. "Any idea which room they are?"  
Way shook his head. Although the teacher showed the full list of their dormitory room numbers, no one bother to read through the whole list, they would only scan through it just to find their own name.  
"This is harder than I expected. . . If only that Hussie man didn't push everything onto us." The thought of it alone made the albino-haired girl clench her fist. Way gave a worried glance at the girl.  
"Hey, Peregrine. . . I think it's enough for today. We still have homework. Maybe we can worry about this tomorrow."  
Peregrine looked at Way quizzically, before relaxing and gave a small sigh. "Yeah, okay."  
Way smiled, walking back towards his room, while Peregrine followed reluctantly.  
__________  
"Does anyone even know the name of the English twins. . .?" Eridan asked Karkat as they made their way towards their respective rooms.  
"No. Even if they're shown on the room number list, we just don't seem to see their names. What's the matter?"  
"I know both of their names. . ."  
"Oh?"  
"Yeah. . ."  
"What are they?"  
"Caliborn and Calliope."  
All Karkat heard were jumbles of words.  
"Huh?"  
Eridan frowned, slowing down his pronunciation rate, "Ca-li-born and Cali-oh-pee."  
"I don't understand what you're talking about?"  
Eridan gave a frustrated sigh. "Maybe only people who have heard them speak their names themselves know?"  
"Maybe, because apparently all you're saying is bullshit."  
Eridan shrugged, he is already used to Karkat's habit of using explicit words in his sentences.  
"I heard my name being mentioned?" The familiar icy cold voice was heard. Eridan turned to see the albino girl with streakes of green hair with the mask. She strode over to the duo.  
"Oh, uh. . ." Eridan immediately shied away, considering what Caliborn did to him on the first day of school.  
"It's you, fish boy, right?" Calliope's voice was rather soft, which surprised the duo. The girl's icy voice was gone.  
"Y-Yeah, and my name is Eridan.." The violet boy is now his usual and quiet self.  
"Eridan? Nice name. And you are. . .?" Calliope turned to Karkat.  
"Karkat." The boy grumbled, for some reason, he is somewhat angry.  
"Oh, sounds . . . Crabby." She gave a light laugh.  
"Who are YOU?" Karkat rolled his eyes, his angry self again.  
"I'm sorry, but I mustn't say the name. My brother would be here in a blink of an eye." She blinked, "Although I would love to tell you."  
The girl's mask is still on. Eridan is so tempted to take it off, but, considering what happened at the laser tag when all of the people joined together to have a huge game, he probably wouldn't want to mess with the girl in case she pulls out a handgun of some sort.  
"Well, it was nice talking to you two, I'll see you later!" She gave one of those innocent anime smiles. One of those where the girls close their eyes and show their perfect teeth. Calliope's teeth truly are perfect and white, only that, Eridan had realised, her canines are slightly larger in proportion compared to her other teeth.  
She ran off as Eridan waved. She seemed to disappear suddenly around a corner, and into a wall. He heard the door lock click. Seems as if her and Caliborn's room is invisible to the other people in the school. No wonder they seem to appear in the most unexpected times.  
"You know. . . She designed the school banner?" Karkat suggested, trying to press down his feeling of jealousy now that the violet boy has another friend, a FEMALE one.  
"Really? That's so awesome!"  
"Yeah. . . She spends the 12 hours of school time starting from 8 AM to 8 PM, taking a profession of art and literature, so it's not surprising."  
"Wow. . ." Eridan breathed, before he saw a girl walk up to him. It was a girl with fuchsia clothing. He immediately recognised her as Feferi.  
"Hi. . . Whatever your name is! That's not important, but, like, we should, like, totally hang out? You don't deserve to be stuck with this loser." She batted her eyelashes.  
"Don't trust Feferi, she plays with your feelings and breaks them." Karkat whispered.  
"OMG, Karkat! How dare you say such mean things about me? I am so telling you off." Feferi rolled her eyes, before turning to Eridan again, winking. "Our parents are like, BFF's, so, like, call me, okay?" She turned on her heel and flipped her hair rudely in Karkat's face, before skipping away.  
Eridan frowned, turning back to Karkat. The boy shook his head.  
"I remember my dad being dead enemies with Ms. Peixes . . . Or did their feelings change?"  
Karkat tapped his chin thoughtfully.  
"No. They're still rivals, just not so much now, since you came and Cronus was being a hopeless flirt. . ."  
Eridan rolled his eyes, "Cronus is always a hopeless flirt. He does that to me all the time."  
"Oh, okay." Karkat was silent after that.  
How much he wants another drink. . . To wash down the jealousy. . . To care less. . . To. . . Forget. . .  
__________  
"Who was there?" John lifted up his head when he heard Dave slam a door shut.  
Dave mumbled for a while, before answering, "The new dudes. They wanted to know about the 413 Questions."  
John's eyes brightened, "Maybe they can help us!"  
Dave shrugged, "They look sketchy, so I didn't let them come in."  
"Dave! Tell me before you refuse next time, okay?"  
"No promises, Egbert."  
The raven haired boy gave into a loud and angry pout.  
"You answer the door next time, if you're so desperate about help." The coolkid rolled his eyes behind his shades.  
"Yeah, sure." John turned around on his swivel chair and was back on his laptop, trying to code.  
Dave walked over and looked over the complex computer coding, before pointing out several places where it can cause a syntax error if the boy ran the program.  
It was now John's turn to roll his eyes, he slammed his forehead on the keyboard in frustration, which made him run the program. After that the screen went black. The laptop crashed.  
"Fuck.." He mumbled, lifting his head up again and shutting the laptop, looking up and behind him at the Strider.  
All Dave had was a smug grin. Damnit, this boy sure can smirk well.  
"You need patience if you wanna learn computer coding, John. The amount of patience you have right now is not enough."  
"Yeah, okay." John stood up and stretched, walking outside. It was obvious that Peregrine and Way are gone, but he was wondering whether his 17-year-old friends are outside their rooms.  
No one was in the hallway, except for Karkat and Eridan who just walked past him. He turned towards them and caught them talking to the girl of the English twins.  
The conversation was relatively loud, but the Egbert had no intention on eavesdropping, so he just gently shut the door as he crept back into his room, numbered 413.  
John walked over to his opened laptop, and grabbed it. He threw it onto his bed and climbed up to the top bunk, laying down on his stomach and opened his chatting software. It was named 'Pesterchum'. He doesn't care how corny it sounds, he just prefers it over Facebook or whatever. He wondered who he should chat with, before finally deciding to pester Roxy.  
'ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering tipsyGnostalgic [TG]'  
'EB: hi roxy!'  
'EB: are you there?'  
'TG: yea johnny boy whats up'  
"Hitting on someone, eh?" A voice piped up behind the nerd. John rolled his eyes, knowing that it is Dave.  
"Yeah, okay, whatever you say."  
'EB: nothing much! i was just feeling a little bored, thats all. :D'  
"Yep, totally hitting on her. Good luck, Egbert." Dave gave a chuckle.  
John gave a loud pout, but kept typing.  
While, on the other side of the computer, there sat Roxy in her own room, with Jane at her side.  
'TG: then y pester me when u have davey or rose? jade seems like a gd choice 2'  
'EB: ...i dont know! i just felt like pestering you first.'  
Jane and Roxy both giggled at the same time.  
"Rox, I swear, John has a crush on you."  
"Hm, I dont know. It might be platonic, who knows? You know, the quadrants lessons we learnt with Ms. Maryam and pairings with Ms. Leijon? I remember there was something with the pale quadrant, right?"  
"Yeah, but arent we pale for each other already?"  
"Right." Roxy smiled, before returning to the computer screen.  
'TG: well, im glad that u thought of me b4 every1 else.'  
'EB: heh. :B'  
'EB: aanyway...'  
'EB: i was wondering whether you can teach me magic tricks or maybe those awesome card tossing you can do?'  
Roxy looked back up at Jane, and the slightly chubby girl gave a pair of thumbs-up, "Go for it, Rox. Maybe you'll even get a boyfriend before school starts. . ." Jane smiled mischievously while Roxy shoved at the girl, snorting.  
"Yeah, right."  
'TG: i would luv 2! u want me to drop by or do u want to come over?'  
'EB: ummm... i dont know! whatever you want!'  
'TG: do u mind coming over?'  
'EB: not at all! i will be there in a few minutes! :D'  
'TG: ok johnny boy, ill b waiting.'  
'ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering tipsyGnostalgic [TG]'  
Jane giggled as soon as Roxy closed the chat window. "You and John make a good couple, though. If he isn't considered gay as Jade joked, then I think he would actually date you."  
Roxy rolled her eyes, "Oh please, just because you like Jake don't jump into conclusions about me liking someone."  
Jane flushed red, "Hey!"  
They both heard a small knock on the door.  
"Go and get the door, and a boyfriend, Roxy." Jane laughed, pushing Roxy towards the wooden plank between the Egbert and the Lalonde.  
"Yeah, okay." Roxy rolled her eyes, opening the door.  
__________  
Jade knocked on the door. It was opened. She walked in, before throwing her arms around the albino male, tackle-hugging him.  
"Bec!" She exclaimed happily.  
"Hey, Jade." The boy smiled, chuckling slightly.  
"I missed you! Did you just move over here?"  
"Yeah. . ."  
"Who is this?" G-Cat walked over.  
"She's my cousin, Jade."  
"I remember her from the laser tag. Nice to meet you." G-Cat smiled politely, holding out her hand.  
Jade slowly let go of Bec and held G-Cat's hand, shaking it.  
"You did really well on the shooting."  
"Your parkour skills were just as awesome as Bec's! You two really should teach me some time!" Jade said dreamily.  
"I wish I can, maybe some point tomorrow? I don't know."  
"Yes, of course! I'm kinda trying to teach myself the basics!"  
"Don't you have a teacher?"  
"Uncle doesn't let her." Bec interruped Jade before the girl could speak.  
"Makes sense. Parkour can be very dangerous."  
"But I want to learn! I want to know!" Jade whined, while both albino kids rolled their eyes.  
"Okay, okay, fine. I (She) will teach you instead." They said in unison.  
Jade gave a cheerful cry, hugging both of the students tightly. "Thank you thank you thank you! I love you both!" She gave a kiss on the either of their cheeks, before dashing off and down the hall, towards her room and giggling in triumph.  
__________  
A girl dressed in a fashion that is the latest and jade-colour based strutted around in the library, picking out books and flipping through them, before taking photographs as well as post-it notes to stick them all over her notebook. In no time she had the notebook she was holding full of information and marked the binder with a cobalt gel pen, placing it on the top of the stack of notebooks she had on the desk beside her. The stack already has been marked with the colours, starting from the bottom, rust, bronze, gold, olive, jade and teal. There were two notebooks that were placed almost as if it were the outcasts. The one on the bottom was marked with grey and written neatly with the black marker, 'One', while the other one is marked iron red, written 'Two'.  
Kanaya held a black sharpie, bit down onto the pen cap in her mouth, and scribbled down 'One' on top of all of the markings she had just done on the stack of notebooks. She grabbed another notebook and continued, flipping through the books again and marking this notebook she is holding with an indigo gel pen. Her movements were interupted by an albino girl walked up to her.  
"Hello, Kanaya."  
"Hello, Rose."  
"What are you doing?"  
"Gaining fashion ideas. How about you?"  
"Reading up grimdark creatures,"  
"As always." Both of the, said in unison. They gave a hearty laugh once more.  
"Would you mind if I just sit down here and watch?"  
"No, I don't mind." Kanaya smiled.  
"Alright." Rose sat down at the table, flipping through the notebooks hastily.  
"You sure do have an immense amount of notes."  
"Yes, better than too little or nothing."  
"Is this for your exam?"  
"Yes. Not it's not taken in school, though. My mother sends me outside of school for these fashion and textile classes."  
"Of course."  
Silence settled in between them. It wasn't an awkward one, though. It was a comfortable one. A peaceful one. Rose slowly opened her large, oversized book about grimdark monsters and started to read, as she listened to the rhythmic ruffles of the paper, the scribbling of ballpoint pens and sharpies, as well as the soft sounds the books made when the cover collided with the every last page of the library book.  
It felt nice to just spend time with Kanaya like this, Rose concluded internally.  
After all, they were both 'bookworms', and spending time studying together is always the pleasure of being one of those top students.

. . . Right?


End file.
